Abstract
This sonic and visual installation by artist Noel Burgess is set in a virtual reality environment and explores layers of memory experienced through oral history. Through VR headsets visitors can experience various rooms in the Woodford Academy, the oldest colonial structure in the Blue Mountains, and listen to oral recordings of Gertrude McManamey, the last owner and resident of the Woodford Academy prior to her bequest to the National Trust. This installation affords the audience an opportunity to travel through time and space and be immersed in the layers of stories which unfold during a 1988 recorded discussion with Gertrude about her time in the building.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Place of Publication | Blue Mountains, N.S.W. |
| Publisher | Blue Mountains Cultural Centre |
| Size | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 2022 |
| Event | Blue Mountains Cultural Centre(advertised date: 1/03/2022) - Duration: 1 Mar 2022 → … |
Research Statement
Noel Burgess – The Sound of Memories, Woodford AcademyResearch Statement
Research background
This exhibition explores the nature of experiencing memory as an agent of the present through the exhibition of a ‘sound object’ in the form of a 1988 recording of Gertrude McManamay recounting her key experiences growing up and living her entire life at the state heritage listed Woodford Academy property.
Research contribution
The exhibition was developed using an iterative method originally developed using mapping of thematically arrangement segments of Gertrude’s historical accounts and memories. These segments were arranged over space and time by playing back using matched thematic digital signal processing in six locations of the Woodford Academy property to create meaning through this spatio-temporal composition. The acoustic experience was capture in seven location/nodes using three dimensional ambisonics recording techniques combined with 360-degree video for the full length of the 30- minute exhibition. Those seven-node capture are displayed in the exhibition using seven VR headsets, located on a floorplan of the Woodford Academy, mapped out in the white-space gallery of the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre. Audiences could free navigate Gertrude’s memory by walking between VR headsets in the gallery space, thereby experiencing the non-linear nature of memory recall as an agent of the present, to form new unique combined memories as part of their experiential understanding.
Research significance
The Sound of Memory – Woodford Academy, is a state significant exhibited work that achieved funding selection as one of four selected works from a field of close to 100 entrants. The exhibition logged over 2,500 visitations and an analysis of the visitation comments yielded more than 80% positivity.
The exhibition was supported by a public program of artist talks in the gallery and in seminar form online, hosted by the BMCC.
The exhibition was presented at the 2023 Myth Making and Future Possibilities Conference hosted by Macquarie University.
The exhibition was a finalist in the National Trust of Australia Heritage Awards 2023: Education and Interpretation.
Keywords
- VR installation
- interactive music
- digital heritage
- ambisonic sound
- VR music
- interactive art
- musical perception
- sound installations
- Soundscapes (Music)
